It’s Gin Blanco's party - and you’ll cry if she wants you to. Against her better judgment, Gin is coerced into attending a high-society gala with the rest of Ashland's elite underworld. On display: the priceless art collection of her deceased nemesis, Mab Monroe, and an excess of crime-boss swagger. While not comfortable in her fancy attire, Gin gets vastly more interested in the evening’s events when a group of thieves bursts in and tries to seize the valuable, dangerous gems.

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Publisher's Summary

The eighth hotly anticipated book in the Elemental Assassin series by New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Estep.

It’s Gin Blanco's party - and you’ll cry if she wants you to. Against her better judgment, Gin is coerced into attending a high-society gala with the rest of Ashland's elite underworld. On display: the priceless art collection of her deceased nemesis, Mab Monroe, and an excess of crime-boss swagger.

While not comfortable in her fancy attire, Gin gets vastly more interested in the evening’s events when a group of thieves bursts in and tries to seize the valuable, dangerous gems. Facing a Die Hard-esque scenario in which she must free hostage partygoers while herself trapped in the museum, things get a little bit messy when the bloodshed begins. Let's just say that Gin should have chosen the red gown....

So i'm not giving anything away, but before the book started i have assumed that its going to be the same thing as usual... She finds someone who is hurting someone, she plans to kill that bad guy, she fales the first time, she heals, then she tries again and kills the bad guy... But noooo ... not in this one.. you have a different place, different plot than usual..

You don't get the usual, and you keep on thinking you know what will happen, but no there are few twists in this book.. some of these twists are predictable and some are not... There are few funny moments here and there, specially in the first few chapters.

Narrator is doing a good job as usual.

I don''t want to give anything away, but lets just say, i would rank this in the top from this series, specially with the change we got from the usual thing... its not completely different than the usual but its new and reminds me of few movies i watched before

4.5 stars. Definitely the best in the series in my opinion. This book was 90% plot and action, low romance. While I love the romance, this story was well done. Riveting and just entertaining.

Finnegan Lane was invited to an Art Exhibit of the items owned by the infamous Mab Monroe and of course Finn invited Gin to be his date.First, he wanted to get Gin out the house since she has been moping about her separation with Owen and he was also curious about the items that the dead fire elemental had amassed.

We learned from the prior 2 book that everyone should be weary of any invitation by Ashland's underworld, so I was not surprised at all when a fun gala event turned into a "stick up". A group of Giants had decided that they were through being bodyguards and wanted to run Ashland's underworld now that Mab's death left a vaccum for leadership.

Obviously they made a grave miscalculation by holding the crowd hostage, the crowd including Gin Blanco's loved ones. Nobody messes with Gin's family and gets away with. Watch Gin Blanco get to the bottom of the robbery and also the mystery of who set up the heist and why.

I was just hooked from the beginning to the very end! What a ride. This book was written like an action movie and it was the return to the beginning of the series where love as a side action and Gin Blanco as the Spider reigned as the main plot. Yes, Gin and Owen did talk and lay some things on the table. I also see a future with these two as I love them as a couple. But most of this book was all Gin solving a mystery and while there was just a little of Finn, Owen, Jojo D, Eva, Philip, Rosaline, Xavier & even Bria were just supporting her.I can't wait for the next installment of what has become one of my favorite series.

Gin is a magnet for trouble. Even when Finn tries to convince her to stop wallowing and go to an event with him, drama finds her. Of course it’s not surprising that this is an event that will auction off all of Mab Monroe’s belongings. It’s bound to have shady characters, right? Luckily Gin is always prepared.

Deadly Sting started off differently than most of the Elemental Assassin books. Usually the books start with Gin in the Pork Pit, this book is 80% at least in the same place, the gala event. The gala starts off like any normal ritzy event, cocktails and mingling. Gin and her gut feelings, she kind of knows something is “off”. She wasn’t wrong. In a very unexpected turn of events Gin is left alone to figure out how she’s going to rescue her loved ones without the help of anyone.

My favorite part of this book was definitely having Gin and Owen working as a team together, after she rescues him of course. I think after their recent turmoil this was definitely needed for me. These two aren’t a couple again or back to normal, but it was nice to see them in action and remember how great they are together.

Damn it Owen! I seriously hope you redeem yourself in Kiss of Venom, the new novella in HIS point of view. He still isn’t the same but I have HOPE! :-) Gin is damn near a one woman show and she prevailed again this time. Not without broken bones, bruises, etc but she got it done. I look forward to hear what else karma has in store for her.

For an accomplished Assassin there seem only to be memories and accounts of botched jobs barley pulled out of the fire by a combination of luck, circumstance and miracle. And the pattern continues.

There is a good amount of well established and well developed characters; a great little world full of variation and colour but it seems that this Authors train is just running back and forth on the same rail with little or no real variation and a lot of incidental repetition.

If you have read book 1 through 7 than you will know what I mean; if not do start at book one as the read is great and only starts being very predictable around book 4 or 5.

As always, Jennifer Estep delivers an action-packed tale of violence and death. You'd think with that sort of material the story would be gruesome and the characters unlikeable, but not so! Gin is sexy, confident and capable. You just have to cheer for her and her friends. I really enjoy this series and can't wait for the next one! Lauren Fortgang adds SO much to the story with her smoky southern voice. A wholly enjoyable experience!

This one was a nice surprise. For once, it didn't start out with Gin gunning for someone. The story was good. It tied up some loose ends. It opened the door for a new big bad. Overall, pretty good. The beginning was a little weird, Fortgang sounded very breathy, almost like she was trying to be sexy (?) at a point in the book where it wasn't needed and it creeped me out a little. She took the normal Gin drawl and twisted it. It went away fairly quickly and all was good after that. It was a nice addition to the series and I can't wait for August and the next one!

If you have not read Widow’s Web there will a SPOILERS in this review.

Red is definitely Gin’s color! In each book of the series we see how deadly Gin can be but since she took out Mab in Spider’s Revenge she gone a little soft IMO. But she is in full assassin mode in Deadly Sting!

Deadly Sting is different from all the other books in the Elemental Assassin series. The main plot takes place in one night at one location. I’ve talked the book over with some of my reading buddies and some have said they didn’t like this change but I for one enjoyed it.

True we didn’t get to see as much of the secondary characters that I’ve come to love just as but I feel like DS was more about Gin and getting some of her mojo back after the events that have happened to her personal life. And reminding the “crime bosses” in Ashland that the Spider is not someone to mess with.

Gin reluctantly goes to a fancy art showing with Finn. But it’s not just any art show but it’s a showing Mab Monroe’s personal art collection and her will is going to be read at this shindig. All of the big names in Ashland is going to be there, including…..Owen Wilson. But Gin doesn’t know it until she is blind sided by seeing him…..with a date.

Oh Owen, Owen, Owen. You cut us, cut us deep.

Just when the party is looking like a boring run of the mill art showing the wait staff start waving guns around and in true Gin fashion she can’t go anywhere without having to put on her assassin knives, luckily she has a place or two to hide them under her new red party dress that Finn made her buy.

Gin moves throughout the museum like the deadly, bad ass assassin that she is taking out the bad guys and trying to save her family and friends at are in attendance. For the most part of the action Gin is alone but she’s the Spider after all and she can handle it.

One thing I’ve enjoyed throughout the series is getting flashbacks from Gin’s past with her mentor, Fletcher. And we get another one in Deadly Sting. Gin always pulls from the memories to help her when she is in a hard place.

The Clementine, head bad guy, has plans for using Owen in her scheme. Gin works fast to free him before they kill him once he’s done. The 1/2 half of the book has Owen and Gin working together to help the others.

“No, we didn’t really get a chance to talk about anything. There was just blood, dead giants, and a lot of awkward pauses.”

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